Page 65 - U4SSC Blockchain for smart sustainable cities

Opportunities Challenges

• The backend-as-a-service model incorporat- • Local legislation affects how processes are
ing blockchain and cloud technologies could needed along with the specific functionality
be used to develop further interesting appli- of systems.
cations in public administration. • Having multiple stakeholders makes it more
complex to design appropriate solutions.

Lessons learned and conclusions

• The application of blockchain to provide more efficient and transparent services to citizens turned
out to be an interesting testbed that led to numerous learnings for future applications.
• Blockchain technology is still in an early stage and different types of solutions exist. There is a need
to experiment with different technical solutions to find those which are most effective.
• Blockchain is useful to create a single point of truth for business processes that span various admin-
istrative units and involve different stakeholders.
• Blockchain and cloud computing technologies can be integrated with legacy systems

The study was completed later with four additional ongoing use-cases that offer a diversity of situations
for analysis:

Blockchain for cities Use-Cases

Case 9: Financial The Financial Emergency Brake case aims to help citizens in debt via an app. The
Emergency Brake objective is to contribute to the debt reduction by providing citizens with a GDPR-
proof way to declare payment inability. This prototype has been developed in
collaboration with various partners (triple-helix ) and encompasses the principles
d90
of privacy and citizen-centred sharing. Blockchain was one of the technological
components chosen because no single partner should have control over all data – a
decentralized chain of trust is required. It helps citizens to control their data in a
private and secure-way and the system is more stable given that there are multiple
databases instead of a single point of failure.
Case 10: Healthy The use-case Healthy on the blockchain is part of the programme fit4Work aimed at
making the employee healthier. It is funded by the Interreg North Sea Region. This
project is at a very early stage.
Case 11: The use-case Stadjerpass is a voucher system for people with minimum income in
Stadjerpass Groningen (in the Netherlands). It is an improved version of an existing project that
was realized in the ‘90s. It grants access to social and cultural activities for free or
with a discount. It provides access to the swimming pool, or the chance to attend a
theatre show with a discount, etc. The municipality adopted blockchain technology
for its security and transparency features for handling the transactions.
Case 12 & 13: For the Bling (Blockchain in Government) project, the Howest University of Applied
BLING Projects Sciences (Belgium) has been collaborating with the city of Roeselare on 3 blockchain
proof of concepts: addressing the accessibility of industrial zones, stimulating
local trade and testing a preventive health programme. The purpose is to increase
security, data privacy, enhancing accessibility and improve the processes.

U4SSC: Blockchain for smart sustainable cities 55